Tag: religion

Sweden is pretty awesome. Not only is it the country that originated the pirate party a political party whose ideology revolves around open sharing of information between people it is also the first country to recognize file sharing as a religion and the shortcuts Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V as holy signs. The Church of Kopimism (that is what the religion is called: Kopimism) hopes that its newfound legal status may make the lawmakers think a little differently when they are outlining laws against software piracy and also promote peer-to-peer file sharing throughout the world. (Their motto is Copy and Seed)

Founded by philosophy student Isak Gerson, a self confessed pirate who religiously copies files, the Missionary Church of Kopimism wanted the believers in the sacred act of copying to not be persecuted for their beliefs. Since anyone can become a member of this Church, anyone trying to persecute you for sharing your files or receiving other files is infringing upon your democratic right to religion and religious beliefs. If you thought Gerson was a little wacky, he is but he is also extremely clever.

For the Church of Kopimism, information is holy and copying is a sacrament. Information holds a value, in itself and in what it contains, and the value multiplies through copying. Therefore, copying is central for the organisation and its members.

After a couple of failed attempts to legalize their religion, the kopimi (the believers of this Church) were finally registered as followers of an official religion just before Christmas. If you wish to change your religion to something that actually reflects your viewpoints look no further than here.